{"id":862,"date":"2015-05-19T20:59:03","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T20:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/77.104.180.154\/~andrewdo\/blog\/?p=862"},"modified":"2017-09-20T11:31:09","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T11:31:09","slug":"barriers-forms-and-looking-after-your-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2015\/05\/19\/barriers-forms-and-looking-after-your-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Barriers, forms and looking after your customers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

I pay London Midland<\/a> nearly \u00a34,500 for my annual season ticket. On Monday morning after arriving in London, bleary-eyed and limping along from my weekend's cycling, I discovered that I had left my ticket in the wrong wallet. Due to Berkhamsted station not having any ticket barriers and my train rolling up to a platform at Euston that was also devoid of ticket readers I only realised my predicament when I descended to the tube for leg two of my commute. Tube journeys aren't that expensive if you use a contactless card so I just sighed at my dozyness, resigned myself to having to pay for a couple of tube trips, waved my credit card at the yellow reader and figured I'd deal with it when I got back to Euston.<\/p>\n

On the way home I was in a rush to catch my train in order to get to a school governors' meeting. There is always an attendant at the barriers at Euston and I thought that just perhaps<\/em> there would be a chance that I would be able to let him or her know what had happened and he would wave me through. I couldn't have been more wrong.<\/p>\n

I have discovered that the process you have to go through is as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Get directed to the customer service window, usually staffed by only one person with a queue of people in front of it. On this occasion it meant that I missed my train.<\/li>\n
  2. Explain your predicament to the customer service agent.<\/li>\n
  3. Buy a ticket home (\u00a314.40 off-peak from Euston to Berkhamsted!)<\/li>\n
  4. Start your journey but remember not to put your ticket in any barrier at your destination as you need to hold onto it.<\/li>\n
  5. At a later point, when you have your season ticket with you\u2014probably in peak hours if this is when you usually travel\u2014speak to another customer service agent and get a pink 1970s-style (actually revised in 1996!) carbon-copy form to fill out with your details. These details include your full credit card number and expiry date for all to see.<\/li>\n
  6. Hand the form over along with the ticket to be refunded, your season ticket, your photocard and wait about ten minutes for the form to be added to and stamped.<\/li>\n
  7. Be given the carbon copy of the form (see below) and be told that “they will call you if there are any questions, otherwise the money will be refunded in about ten days or so.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

    At first it seemed bizarre to me that a company would treat its season-ticket buying customers like this, making them jump through hoops when there is a simple error. Then it dawned on me that there is probably no incentive to change\u2014the process is such a pain that there is automatically a barrier to people pursuing refunds, resulting in more money for the company. They also have a monopoly\u2014there is no other way of going from Berkhamsted to Euston on the train\u2014and so it isn't that I can go to another train operator that makes a point of having better customer service than their peers.<\/p>\n

    To give the firm a little credit, they have made some things easier over recent times such as giving us the ability to log a 'Delay Repay' claim using their iPhone app. Perhaps this could be the next area to look at. I know that the company couldn't replace the outdated paper ticket system on their own, but having something on my phone that proves I am a gold-card holder would make life much easier.<\/p>\n

     <\/p><\/div>\n

    I pay London Midland nearly \u00a34,500 for my annual season ticket. On Monday morning after arriving in London, bleary-eyed and limping along from my weekend's cycling, I discovered that I had left my ticket in the wrong wallet. Due to Berkhamsted station not having any ticket barriers and my train rolling up to a platform […]<\/div>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,10,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-berkhamsted","7":"category-london","8":"category-travel","9":"h-entry","11":"hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":191,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2006\/01\/17\/moving-from-finchley-to-berkhamsted\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":0},"title":"Moving from Finchley to Berkhamsted","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"17 January 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm glad we didn't need to resort to this when we decided to move here. Seriously, how would this work? Sounds like a raffle to me - does that mean you completely avoid stamp duty since you've not actually bought the house even though you win it?","rel":"","context":"In "Berkhamsted"","block_context":{"text":"Berkhamsted","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/berkhamsted\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":125,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2005\/06\/25\/the-pubs-of-berkhamsted\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":1},"title":"The pubs of Berkhamsted","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"25 June 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Thought I'd add a quick entry about the pubs of Berkhamsted. We're yet to explore all of them but already we've found a favourite in The Boat, a lovely Fuller's-owned pub (which means it sells the delicious London Pride, my favourite) situated by the Grand Union Canal with lovely decking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Berkhamsted"","block_context":{"text":"Berkhamsted","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/berkhamsted\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12301,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2025\/07\/23\/weeknotes-334-sixteen\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":2},"title":"Weeknotes #334 \u2014 Sixteen","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"23 July 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Every time I see a sign like this, the pedant in me thinks \u201cReally? Why not put a fence or a wall there instead then?\u201d Another week with plenty going on. I\u2019m still not sleeping that well, which led to me dozing off more than once in front of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weeknotes"","block_context":{"text":"Weeknotes","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/weeknotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Green sign by Camden council which says \u2018PLEASE KEEP THIS GATE LOCKED AT ALL TIMES\u2019.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1DF0E711-53A4-43BE-8E99-906B0DCB873E_1_105_c.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1DF0E711-53A4-43BE-8E99-906B0DCB873E_1_105_c.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1DF0E711-53A4-43BE-8E99-906B0DCB873E_1_105_c.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1DF0E711-53A4-43BE-8E99-906B0DCB873E_1_105_c.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2004\/05\/20\/oyster-madness\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":3},"title":"Oyster madness","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"20 May 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I cannot believe just how badly the new Oystercard system on the London Underground has been put together. When I first started to see people hovering their wallets over the swishy yellow pads I thought it was great and couldn't wait to get my hands on one. I've now been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "London"","block_context":{"text":"London","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/london\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Swishy, but ultimately crap","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/01\/smartcard_swipelogo_600-thumb.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1031,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2017\/06\/25\/a-little-respect\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":4},"title":"A little respect","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"25 June 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of weekends ago I spent an entire Sunday sitting in a field watching my two young boys competing in the Berkhamsted Raiders football tournament which traditionally marks the end of our season. Raiders is a great club to be a part of \u2014 we have won FA and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Berkhamsted"","block_context":{"text":"Berkhamsted","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/berkhamsted\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Raiders tournament, June 2017","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Image-25-06-2017-09-58.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Image-25-06-2017-09-58.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Image-25-06-2017-09-58.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Image-25-06-2017-09-58.jpeg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Image-25-06-2017-09-58.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Image-25-06-2017-09-58.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":97,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2005\/03\/15\/pdf-concatenation\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":5},"title":"PDF concatenation","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"15 March 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Things have moved on, so to speak, pretty rapidly in the house moving department. 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